JABberwocky eBook Program - Zeno Agency Ltd.

WAKE UP AND DREAM in digital…

Posted on Monday, November 12th, 2018

Ian R. MacLeod‘s modern classic WAKE UP AND DREAM is now available in eBook via the JABberwocky eBook Program! Here’s the synopsis…

All failed actor and unlicensed private eye Clark Gable has to do is impersonate a wealthy scriptwriter for a few hours, and sign a contract for the biopic of the inventor of a device which has transformed the world of entertainment. What could go wrong? True, he’s seeing ghosts, but so’s everyone else these days, at least when they go to the Feelies. And Europe is devastated by war, and America in sleep-walking toward Fascism. But what’s that got to do with him? A great deal, it turns out, as he stumbles into a world of glamour, danger, preternatural forces and political intrigue.

A dazzling blend of mystery, fantasy and history, and by turns witty, eerie and romantic, Wake Up and Dream is film noir with Technicolor wraiths.

JABberwocky has also published Ian’s THE SUMMER ISLES, SONG OF TIME, THE GREAT WHEEL and RED SNOW in eBook, which are available everywhere now!

Today, get trapped IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE!

Posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2018

Aliette de Bodard‘s latest book, IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE is out today! A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast, the book is published by the JABberwocky eBook Program in the UK, US and France. Here’s the synopsis…

In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…

A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.

A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.

But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies — and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…

You can read an excerpt from the novel, here.

The book has already received some advance praise, too…

‘This intriguing, Sapphic, Vietnamese take on Beauty and the Beast is recommended for fans of De Bodard’s previous works or readers who enjoy diverse, lushly described fantasy.’ — Library Journal

‘Another stellar offering by Bodard. Her signature intensity is on display in this tale of people (and dragons) struggling to survive in the ruins of an alien conquest. Emotionally complex relationships interweave with richly drawn and deftly nuanced world-building.’ — Kate Elliott, Author of the Court of Fives series

‘A transformative experience. With dragons.’ — Fran Wilde, Hugo and Nebula nominated author of The Bone Universe and The Gemworld series

The book is available from Amazon UK, US and France, and also Kobo.

Aliette is also the award-winning author of the Dominion of the Fallen series, published by Gollancz in the UK and Roc Books in North America; the critically-acclaimed THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE, published by Subterranean Press and the JABberwocky eBook Program; and also the Obsidian & Blood trilogy, also published as eBooks through the JABberwocky eBook Program.

Backlist Plug: Ian McDonald’s CHAGA series

Posted on Friday, October 12th, 2018

Today, we wanted to draw your attention to Ian McDonald‘s classic Chaga series: CHAGA, KIRINYA and TENDELÉO’S STORY. The trilogy is now available in eBook, published by the JABberwocky eBook Program, and the first two books are also published in Germany by Heyne.

CHAGA, originally called EVOLUTION’S SHORE, was first published in 1995 and was nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

On the trail of the mystery of Saturn’s disappearing moons, network journalist Gaby McAslan finds herself in Africa researching the Kilimanjaro Event: a meteor-strike in Kenya which caused the stunning African landscape to give way to something equally beautiful – and indescribably alien. Dubbed the ‘Chaga’, the alien flora destroys all man-made materials, and moulds human flesh, bone and spirit to its own designs. But when Gaby finds the first man to survive the Chaga’s changes, she realizes it has its own plans for humankind… Against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro, McDonald weaves a staggering tale of keen human observation and speculation, as the Kilimanjaro Event changes the course of the human race by exposure to something beyond its imagination.

Here are some of the reviews CHAGA received…

‘McDonald… consistently explores new territory with his breathtaking images and incisive language. Both form and substance blend fortuitously in a work that features strong characters, a suspenseful story, and a profound message of hope and transformation. A priority purchase for SF collections.’ — Library Journal

‘One of the finest writers of his generation, who chooses to write science fiction because that is how he can best illuminate the world.’ — New Statesman

‘Optimistic near-future alien-contact yarn… McDonald’s tale is also inventive and challenging… a dense, complex, rather weighty, often fascinating piece of speculation.’ — Kirkus

You can also read an excerpt from the novel here.

KIRINYA (1998) was showered with similar accolades when it was published: the novel was described by SFX as ‘a huge and ambitious novel’ and ‘the work of a supremely talented writer’, and McDonald was hailed as an ‘outstanding writer’ and ‘marvellous talent’ by The Times...

The end of the universe happened at around ten o’clock at night on 22 December, 2032. It’s just that humanity hasn’t realized it yet. And the Chaga, the strange flora deposited from the stars, is still busy terraforming the tropics into someone else’s terra. Gaby McAslan was once a hungry news reporter who compromised her relationship with UNECTA researcher Dr. Shepard for the sake of her story… but Gaby is no longer a journalist and she doesn’t want to be a full-time mother, even though her child Serena is her last link with Shepard. Gaby’s fire has gone out; she’s gone soft. But the massive political and military upheavals rocking the world are about to drag her back into the action.

The final book in the Chaga series, TENDELÉO’S STORY is a novella that was originally published by PS Publishing in 2000.

From the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, an alien force begins to spread, turning the land into an unrecognizable alien landscape. Tendeléo is nine years old when this first package comes down, and before she reaches adulthood the Chaga will change her life forever.

Ian’s latest series is Luna, of which the first two books are out now: NEW MOON and WOLF MOON, published by Gollancz in the UK and Tor Books in North America. The series is also available in a growing number of translated editions.

Catch E.J. Swift in Holland this week!

Posted on Monday, September 24th, 2018

This Thursday (27th), E.J. Swift will be giving a talk as part of the Terra Fiction convention in Amsterdam!

Terra Fiction is the second installment of FIBER’s ongoing Coded Matter(s): Worldbuilding project. These lecture events question the design of contemporary world visions and technological narratives, which are contributing to greater socio-economic inequality and environmental destruction

Swift is the author of the critically-acclaimed Osiris Project trilogy and, most recently, the new novel PARIS ADRIFT. The Osiris Project novels are published in the UK by Del Rey, and available in the US via the JABberwocky eBook Program. PARIS ADRIFT is published in the UK and US by Solaris Books.

Here are some of the reviews Emma’s books have received so far…

‘[A]n effervescent blend of revisionist history, fantasy and science fiction… Hallie’s newfound family and bar life is utterly charming, and it’s this that holds your attention even as the plot meanders. The stakes — world-destroying as they may be — never feel higher than whether Hallie will make it through a shift at Millie’s.’ — Washington Post

‘E.J. Swift’s PARIS ADRIFT is her best novel yet: a time-travelling adventure that, despite the cosmic stakes, is bravely and beautifully intimate. Despite the apocalyptic backdrop, PARIS is also wistfully hopeful – a novel of ordinary, extraordinary heroism… PARIS ADRIFT uses science fiction’s largest and most unwieldy mechanic for its smallest and most intimate stakes: this isn’t about the world, it is about Hallie. PARIS is a story about significance at every level, individually and collectively; ultimately, whether that’s in time, life, or simply one’s outlook – this is a poetic demonstration of how little changes make big differences. Despite being a novel that’s – literally! – timeless, you couldn’t find a work more wonderfully fitting for 2018.’ — Pornokitsch

‘[A] really gripping book that was also really thought provoking and moving… [The novel] deals with many themes which are very relevant right now and Hallie’s time travel to a bleak 2042 felt too plausible… [I] loved reading about Hallie’s expeditions to 1875. Paris really came alive for me and I just loved all the sub stories going on, particularly Millie’s. PARIS ADRIFT also touches on what it’s like to feel adrift and alone in this big world, whether we’re living the best versions of ourselves. This story is about getting lost in order to find yourself. There’s a good message in this book, that doing small deeds to help strangers can have huge effects later on and the future is something we should all be thinking about.’ — British Fantasy Society

‘Swift (the Osiris Project series) delivers both an unusual take on time travel and solid characters, including a fantastic protagonist… Swift keeps things moving briskly, throwing out innocuous tidbits while scene setting that lead to surprising later payoffs.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘Marvelously well done. A glittering first novel: a kind of flooded Gormenghast treated with the alienated polish of DeLillo’s Cosmopolis. The result is a gripping novel, beautiful, politically engaged and wholly accomplished. Swift is a ridiculously talented writer… the fact that it’s her first novel is belied by how accomplished and well-written it is.’ — Adam Roberts on OSIRIS

‘What a bare summary of the novel’s premise obscures is the amount of space Swift creates for her protagonists to simply live in their world and experience it for us – in other words, how textured the novel is. The world-building has a playfully oceanic flavor throughout… but is most compelling when it is sketching out the psychology of Osiris’ citizens… Swift demonstrates a much more sophisticated control of pace and tone, an ability to rapidly shift gears within scenes, and a willingness to undercut one scene with another: most notably, the prologue removes ambiguity from one of the major questions facing the protagonists and requires Swift to show one character in particular as much more obsessive and less sympathetic than would otherwise be the case. In the end it’s that choice, perhaps, more than anything else in this nuanced, intriguing, occasionally frustrating book, that makes me think Night Shade have found another worthy writer…’ — LA Review of Books on OSIRIS

‘A fantastic blend of world-building, excellent storytelling and complex characters… An engrossing story from start to finish… OSIRIS would still be good if all it had was world-building, but it offers so much more by way of plot and storytelling. The thrust of the narrative is the motivation of the characters… forces readers to ask themselves what it would take to spur them to action. Now combine this with the other interesting elements of the book like political intrigue, subterfuge, the way the story is told from alternating viewpoints… and you can see why OSIRIS shines. It’s that kind of impressive storytelling that makes OSIRIS hard to put down, and when you have to put it down, something that you remain eager to pick up again.’ — SF Signal

‘… the soulful latest instalment in The Osiris Project and a superior sequel… new lead characters, a fresh story and some real action… CATAVEIRO has a soulful, lonely quality as Taeo and Ramona embark on their solitary missions, haunted by memories of the past and visions of what lies ahead… Their imperfections keep them grounded and likeable, preventing EJ Swift from slipping into predictable and clichéd characterisation… as dystopian fiction goes it is an intriguing world to get lost in.’ — SciFiNow

‘E. J. Swift is an awesome author… stunning…’ — Tor.com on TAMARUQ

‘A series I find myself sad to have finished… but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed visiting the world that Swift has created. I’ve fallen in love with her characters and found myself turning page after page to see what happens to them. It was all depicted so vividly that I found it to be a really immersive series… a brilliant setting with wonderful characters…’ — SF Crowsnest on TAMARUQ

Three new Lavie Tidhar audiobooks on the way!

Posted on Friday, September 14th, 2018

Later this year, Blackstone Audio are set to release three new audiobooks by Lavie Tidhar! Keep reading for more details…

The highly-anticipated new novel, UNHOLY LAND, which is due to be published in print by Tachyon Publications, will be released as an audiobook on October 16th. Here’s the synopsis…

When pulp-fiction writer Lior Tirosh returns to his homeland in East Africa, much has changed. Palestina — an alternate Jewish state established in the early 20th century — is constructing a massive border wall to keep out African refugees. Unrest in the capital, Ararat, is at a fever pitch.

While searching for his missing niece, Tirosh has come to believe he is a detective from one of his own novels. He is pursued by ruthless members of the state’s security apparatus while unearthing deadly conspiracies and impossible realities.

For if it is possible for more than one holy land to exist, the barriers between the worlds are beginning to break.

Lavie’s critically-acclaimed novella MARTIAN SANDS was originally published by PS Publishing back in 2013, and is now available through the JABberwocky eBook Program. The audiobook is due to arrive on December 25th…

1941: an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbour, a man from the future materialises in President Roosevelt’s office. His offer of military aid may cut the War and its pending atrocities short, and alter the course of the future… The future: welcome to Mars, where the lives of three ordinary people become entwined in one dingy smokesbar the moment an assassin opens fire. The target: the mysterious Bill Glimmung. But is Glimmung even real? The truth might just be found in the remote FDR Mountains, an empty place, apparently of no significance, but where digital intelligences may be about to bring to fruition a long-held dream of the stars… Mixing mystery and science fiction, the Holocaust and the Mars of both Edgar Rice Burroughs and Philip K. Dick, Martian Sands is a story of both the past and future, of hope, and love, and of finding meaning — no matter where — or when — you are.

And last, but by no means least, the third book to be released by Blackstone in audio will be the upcoming novel THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD… More details on that book to follow, but you can read the announcement on Lavie’s website, here!

This October: Aliette de Bodard’s IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE

Posted on Friday, September 7th, 2018

We’re delighted to share with you today the cover and details Aliette de Bodard‘s latest new book: IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE! A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it is due to be published on October 16th via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the synopsis…

In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…

A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.

A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.

The book has already received some advance praise, too…

‘A transformative experience. With dragons.’ — Fran Wilde, Hugo and Nebula nominated author of The Bone Universe and The Gemworld series

The book is available to pre-order from Amazon UK, US and France; Kobo UK and US; Google Play; and iTunes UK and US.

Three award-winning novels by Ian R. MacLeod now available in new eBook editions!

Posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2018

We’re very happy to report that three of Ian R. MacLeod‘s critically-acclaimed, award-winning novels have been re-issued as eBooks! Published via the JABberwocky eBook Program, THE GREAT WHEEL, THE SUMMER ISLES, and SONG OF TIME are available now in the UK and US! Read on for more details…

Ian’s debut novel, THE GREAT WHEEL (pictured above), was first published in 1997 and won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

This prescient and ground-breaking novel is set in a near-future where the privileged citizens of Europe shelter behind immense physical and biotechnical barriers from a world ravaged by climate change and disease. Beyond this safe existence of harvest fairs, uncomplicated religion and high tech crops lie the overcrowded souks, teeming streets and exotic religions of the vast sprawl of the Endless City which now encompasses most of North Africa.

Father John, a doubting missionary from the futuristic yet bucolic shires of the Welsh Marches, finds he must leave his ministry and the clamour of the Endless City to search across the dangerous wastelands beyond for the source of a lethal radioactive pollutant. There, in the company of a witchwoman and a young Borderer, he confronts not only his faith but also his own past, and the near-death of Hal, his comatose brother.

You can buy the novel now from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo UK, Kobo US, iTunes UK, iTunes US, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play.

Originally published in 1998, THE SUMMER ISLES won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella (for an earlier, shorter version) and the Sidewise Award for Long Form (2005), and was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

What would have happened if Britain and its allies had lost the Great War? From this premise, and through the compelling story of an outsider forever struggling to make sense of, or even change, the world, The Summer Isles takes a journey into the darker side of British nationalism.

Geoffrey Brook, seemingly a successful and respected history don at a venerable Oxford college, feels his whole life is a fraud. Not only did he not go to the right schools, or attend university, but he cannot even understand Latin. That, and, in a country where intolerance and bigotry has become a national rallying cry, there’s the issue of his supposedly deviant sexuality. Which, if it was discovered, would probably see him sent to a labour camp — or worse still, to the Summer Isles. It all goes back to a boy he remembers from his youth, who has now become the country’s charismatic leader. But what can he do now, in a country that seems to be on the brink of cataclysm?

The novel is now available from: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo UK, Kobo US, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, iTunes UK, and iTunes US.

Finally, we have SONG OF TIME (first published in 2008). Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel and the John W. Campbell Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (both in 2009), here’s the synopsis…

Song of Time begins with an old woman discovering a half-drowned man on a Cornish beach in the furthest days of this strange century. She, once a famous concert violinist, is close to death herself — or a new kind of life she can barely contemplate. Does death still exist at all, or has finally been extinguished? And who is this strange man she’s found? Is he a figure returned from her own past, a new messiah, or an empty vessel?

Filled with love, music, death and life, and spanning the world from the prim English suburbs of Birmingham to the wild inventions of a new-Renaissance Paris to a post-apocalyptic India, Song of Time tells the story of this century, and confronts the ultimate leap into a new kind of existence, and whatever lies beyond…

You can buy the novel now from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Kobo UK, Kobo US, iTunes UK, iTunes US, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play.

As we reported a little while ago, Ian’s RED SNOW novel has also been released as an eBook via the JABberwocky eBook Program. More new eBook editions of MacLeod’s back catalogue are on the way, and we’ll be sure to share details as soon as we have them.

SERVANT OF THE UNDERWORLD is a Kindle Deal in the US and UK!

Posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2018

This month, Aliette de Bodard‘s critically-acclaimed debut novel is a Kindle Monthly Deal in the US! SERVANT OF THE UNDERWORLD, the first novel in the Obsidian & Black trilogy, is only 99c! The novel is also on sale in the UK for Kindle. Published through the JABberwocky eBook Program, here’s the synopsis…

Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan the capital of the Aztecs. Human sacrifice and the magic of the living blood are the only things keeping the sun in the sky and the earth fertile.

A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. It should be a usual investigation for Acatl, High Priest of the Dead–except that his estranged brother is involved, and the the more he digs, the deeper he is drawn into the political and magical intrigues of noblemen, soldiers, and priests-and of the gods themselves…

The other two novels in the trilogy are also available in eBook: HARBINGER OF THE STORM and MASTER OF THE HOUSE OF DARTS.

Aliette’s latest book is THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE, the critically-acclaimed novella set in the author’s Xuya science fiction universe. Published in the US by Subterranean Press, it is also available in the rest of the world as an eBook, published through the JABberwocky eBook Program.

Aliette’s latest series is the award-winning Dominion of the Fallen, published in the UK by Gollancz and in North America by Roc Books: THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS and THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS.

Backlist Plug: Michael Cobley’s SHADOWKINGS trilogy…

Posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2018

Today, we want to draw your attention to Michael Cobley‘s debut trilogy, the Shadowkings grimdark fantasy trilogy: SHADOWKINGS, SHADOWGOD and SHADOWMASQUE.

Originally published by Simon & Schuster between 2002-2005, the series is now available in eBook format via the JABberwocky eBook Program; and as audiobooks via Audible. Here’s the synopsis for the first book…

For one thousand bright and fortunate years the Khatrimantine Empire had guaranteed peace and benevolence. Then came the vast hordes of the Mogaun, driven by an evil deity, the Lord of Twilight, corrupter and devourer. At the very pinnacle of his triumph, the Lord of Twilight made a fatal mistake, shattering his essence into five parts: five lost souls destined to become the Shadowkings. Now, sixteen years after the invasion, Mogaun warlords and petty despots squabble amid the ruins. Yet ancient powers are stirring and the Empire’s last valiant defenders are gathering their strength, hoping that one decisive strike can reverse their long, bleak decline.

The trilogy is also available in Germany, published by Heyne, as SCHATTENKÖNIGE, SCHATTENGÖTTER and SCHATTENKRIEGER.

Here are just a few of the reviews the Shadowkings series has received…

‘A pacey action and adventure story, packed with battles, rescues and political double-dealing… a refreshing and believable take on the Fight Against Insurmountable Evil Foes sub-genre, without dispensing with any of the familiar staples that make the genre what it is.’ — Infinity Plus on SHADOWKINGS

‘SHADOWKINGS, was brutal, cruel and realistic in a way genre usually avoids. SHADOWGOD, his second, is not only lighter, it is better written and makes good use of the world Cobley has created… writing to rival David Gemmell.’ — Guardian (Jon Courtenay-Grimwood)

‘Unconventional high fantasy trilogy… [Cobley] has taken traditional sword and sorcery to some new and perhaps uncomfortable places… Once again Mike has succeeded in producing an unusually dark and claustrophobic piece of work, though it is a lot less bleak than its predecessors. It is also a lot less convoluted with the battle lines more clearly drawn.’ — Infinity Plus on SHADOWMASQUE

‘[Cobley] drew the characters with verve and style, encouraging the reader to participate in the story he was unfolding. The plot was complex but clearly spun out, providing tantalising teasers at the end of each episode, which made me want to skip ahead to the next time that particular thread was picked up and woven. In my opinion, a clear winner for Michael Cobley.’ — SF Crowsnest on SHADOWMASQUE

Michael is also the best-selling author of the Humanity’s Fire sci-fi series, published in the UK and US by Orbit Books: SEEDS OF EARTH, THE ORPHANED WORLDS, THE ASCENDANT STARS, and the stand-alone ANCESTRAL MACHINES. The next novel in the series, SPLINTERED SUNS, is due out later this year. (We’ll bring you the cover and more details as we have them.) The series has also been published in Germany by Heyne.

Ian R. MacLeod’s RED SNOW available in eBook!

Posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

Ian R. MacLeod‘s 2018 Locus Award-finalist RED SNOW is available more widely now as an eBook! Published through the JABberwocky eBook Program, the novel is now available from most eBook retailers. Here’s the synopsis…

In the aftermath of the last great battle of the American Civil War, a disillusioned Union medic stumbles across a strange figure picking amid the corpses, and his life is changed forever…

In the cathedral city of Strasbourg in the years before the French Revolution, a church restorer is commissioned to paint a series of portraits that chart the changing appearance of a beautiful woman over the course of her life, although the woman herself seems ageless…

In Prohibition-era New York, an idealistic young Marxist is catapulted into the realms of elite society, and forced to assume the identity of someone who never existed…

Red Snow is a novel of love and violence, ideas and dreams, and revolves around the mystery of a monster drawn from humanity’s darkest myths which still somehow survives, and thrives, and kills, in this modern age.

The novel was first published as a limited edition by PS Publishing (a few copies left), and has also been published in Poland by MAG. Here are just a couple of the reviews the novel has received so far…

‘… always manages to take us somewhere unexpected… by turns western adventure, Renaissance horror, political intrigue, dysfunctional family drama, and more.’ — Locus

‘By turns horrifying and hauntingly beautiful, this epic vampire story is the stuff of real nightmares.’ — Tim Powers

‘A rich, beautifully written, deftly plotted vampire novel’ — Goodreads

Ian McDonald’s BRASYL and DERVISH HOUSE available in the US!

Posted on Friday, April 6th, 2018

We’re very happy to report that Ian McDonald‘s novels BRASYL and THE DERVISH HOUSE are available again in the US! Published in eBook format through the JABberwocky eBook Program, here are some details…

BRASYL, first published in 2007, the novel is published in the UK by Gollancz. The novel was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo, Nebula and BSFA Awards. Here’s the synopsis…

Be seduced, amazed, and shocked by one of the world’s greatest and strangest nations. Past, present, and future Brazil, with all its color, passion, and shifting realities, come together in a novel that is part SF, part history, part mystery, and entirely enthralling. Three characters, three stories, three Brazils, linked across time, space, and reality in a hugely ambitious story that will challenge the way you think about everything.

The release of BRASYL was met with a number of great reviews. Here are just a couple…

‘McDonald’s outstanding SF novel channels the vitality of South America’s largest country into an edgy, post-cyberpunk free-for-all… Chaotic, heartbreaking and joyous, this must-read teeters on the edge of melodrama, but somehow keeps its precarious balance.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘BRASYL is classic McDonald: a deep thinking, high-paced adventure story, exploring the quantum universe, combining sassy, believable characters with a captivating delight in language and storytelling. McDonald inhabits the Brazil – or rather, the Brazils – of this world and sweeps you along as no other writer in the field could manage.’ — Guardian

‘A beautiful story, one that cries out to be read again and again. McDonald’s light is still shining brightly, and considering the consistent quality of his titles, we say long may it burn.’ — SciFi Now

Next up, THE DERVISH HOUSE! First published in 2009 by Gollancz, this novel was also nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo, Locus and BSFA Awards, and was also a nominee for the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. Here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the world of The Dervish House — the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. With a population pushing one hundred million, and Istanbul alone swollen to fifteen million, Turkey is the largest, most populous, and most diverse nation in the new Europe, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, and three interconnected story strands all woven around the common core of the old dervish house of Aden Dede. A terror attack, a vision of djinn, a commodities scam, a hunt for half a miniature Koran that holds the key to new technology, and a quest for a creature from Arabic legend — that may not be so legendary after all.

Here are some of the great reviews THE DERVISH HOUSE has received…

‘… a writer with an unerring instinct for finding resonance between theme and location… a rich and assured novel that, like much of Ken MacLeod’s recent work, revels in the shiny precision of the airport tech-thriller, yet insists on putting forward disquieting ideas rather than offering all-too-neat reassurances that you can somehow put escaped djinns back in bottles. This is as good as contemporary literary SF gets.’ — SFX (5* Review)

‘I know what to expect from Ian McDonald: broad vistas, intricately imagined futures, poetic language that transports and delights, a blend of mysticism and science that thrills and moves. But no matter how much foreknowledge I bring to a new Ian McDonald, I am always, always startled and thrilled by the exciting, moving epic story I find inside… To read McDonald is to fall in love with a place and to become drunk with it (see this free sample from Dervish House for a taste). I you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. If you’re a fan like me, you’ll be delighted anew. What a wonderful, wonderful book.’ — BoingBoing

‘… thrilling… A master in his own right, McDonald has written some of the best SF of the last fifteen years… a mosaic of a story that can be admired for its finely-wrought pieces but not fully appreciated until the book is finished and looked at again from some distance. The biggest part of the thrill is wondering how the characters will inevitably intersect… As much as THE DERVISH HOUSE is about biogenetics and history, McDonald couches some of his lushest prose in explorations of mysticism… McDonald, who is a native of Scotland, has an uncanny ability to write about other cultures authentically. He is a painstaking researcher and while he cannot always write with absolute authority, his dedication to making settings and characters feel alive is incredibly impressive… Ian McDonald has crafted a gorgeously lush novel, oozing with exciting, relevant ideas, a love letter to the Queen of Cities, to all cities, really.’ — Tor.com

‘A lush, complex and hugely entertaining novel.’ — Guardian

Check out our previous posts about the new JABberwocky eBook editions of Ian’s Everness series and India 2047 novels.

Here are the UK covers for BRASYL and THE DERVISH HOUSE…

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE will see you now…

Posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2018

Aliette de Bodard‘s latest novella, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is out now outside of the US! Available as an eBook via the JABberwocky eBook Program, here’s the synopsis…

Once, the mindship known as The Shadow’s Child was a military transport. Once, she leapt effortlessly between stars and planets, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken.

Now the war is over, and The Shadow’s Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment.

But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past–and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life…

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is published in the US by Subterranean Press, as a hardcover and eBook. Here are some of the reviews the book has received so far…

‘De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘This slim volume packs a visceral punch. Absorbing prose pulls readers into the dark, frigid space between stars, where ships can fail, physically and emotionally, as easily as people… this novella offers sf fans an imaginative read.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is the Sherlock Holmes retelling I always wanted and now I have it. And I want so much more of it.’ — Kirkus

‘This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding — this novella is set in de Bodard’s Xuya continuity, like On A Red Station, Drifting and The Citadel of Weeping Pearls — sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, The Tea Master and the Detective should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

We believe you will want to read this novella. The decision is simply… elementary, my dear reader.

Ian McDonald’s India 2047 series available again in eBook!

Posted on Friday, March 30th, 2018

Ian McDonald‘s classic sci-fi duology India 2047 is available in North America (in eBook format) once again! Published by the JABberwocky eBook Program, here’s the synopsis for the first novel, RIVER OF GODS…

A superpower of two billion people, a dozen new nations from Kerela to the Himalayas, artificial intelligences, climate-change induced drought, water wars, strange new genders, genetically improved children that age at half the rate of baseline humanity, and a population where males outnumber females four to one. This is India in 2047, one hundred years after its birth. In the new nation of Bharat, in the face of the failure of the monsoon, nine lives are swept together — a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist, and a dropout — to decide the future of Mother India.

The second novel, CYBERABAD DAYS is also available. Here’s the synopsis…

A new, muscular superpower of two billion people in an age of new nations, artificial intelligences, climate-change induced drought, water wars, strange new genders, genetically improved children that age at half the rate of baseline humanity, and a population where males outnumber females four to one. Cyberabad Days is a cycle of seven stories, three Hugo nominees and one Hugo winner among them, as well as an original thirty-one-thousand-word novella.

The two novels are published in the UK by Gollancz.

Here are some of the reviews the novels have received…

‘[A] bold, brave look at India on the eve of its centennial, 41 years from now… McDonald takes his readers from India’s darkest depths to its most opulent heights, from rioting mobs and the devastated poor to high-level politicians and lavish parties. He handles his complex plot with flair and confidence and deftly shows how technological advances and social changes have subtly changed lives. RIVER OF GODS is a major achievement from a writer who is becoming one of the best sf novelists of our time.’ — Washington Post

‘This ambitious portrait of a future India from British author McDonald (Desolation Road) offers multitudes: gods, castes, protagonists, cultures… readers will become increasingly hooked as the pieces of McDonald’s richly detailed world fall into place. Already nominated for both Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards, this is sure to be one of the more talked-about SF novels of the year.’ — Publishers Weekly on RIVER OF GODS

‘Hugely adventurous and entertaining, sumptuously inventive and full of heart… it is likely to rank as Ian McDonald’s finest creative achievement.’ — Locus on RIVER OF GODS

‘McDonald’s India engulfs you with an overwhelming, perfumed, stinky embrace. A hugely impressive collection. Seven nifty, witty stories.’ — SFX on CYBERABAD DAYS

‘All in all, CYBERABAD DAYS is a terrific book and a satisfying return to the world of RIVER OF GODS. Ian McDonald is a genius, pure and simple.’ — Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist

‘McDonald excels at conveying, in a gorgeous melange of sensory impressions, an India transformed by AIs, nanotech, robots and cybernetics: the subcontinent is chaotic and lurid, shot through with devotion to eternal Hindu gods and divided by internecine conflict. McDonald gives a refreshing take on the future from a non-western viewpoint.’ — Guardian on CYBERABAD DAYS

‘One of the great pleasures of science fiction is the escape it offers readers from commonplace, everyday surroundings into strange new worlds, and nobody does it better than Ian McDonald. Although CYBERABAD DAYS is set on Earth, and only a few decades into the future, McDonald’s vision of a newly repartitioned India, warring over water and at the cutting edge of technologies based on artificial intelligence, is practically hallucinogenic in style and intensity.’ — Times

Ian McDonald’s latest series, Luna, is published by Gollancz in the UK, Tor Books in the US, and widely in translation.

Wider release for Aliette de Bodard’s THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE next week!

Posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2018

Next week — April 2nd, to be exact — Aliette de Bodard‘s critically-acclaimed new Xuya novella, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE will be available as an eBook outside of the US! The new edition also has a new cover, as can be seen above, by Dirk Berger.

Currently available only in the US via Subterranean Press (cover at end), the book will be released via the JABberwocky eBook Program in the UK and other territories. Here’s the synopsis…

But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past — and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life…

Here, too, is some of that aforementioned critical acclaim…

‘A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘De Bodard’s world building glitters, and her characters are deeply compelling… This is a really satisfying story, deeply invested in choosing to do the right thing – and in the importance of kindness. I strongly recommend it.’ — Locus

‘The Tea Master and the Detective is the Sherlock Holmes retelling I always wanted and now I have it. And I want so much more of it.’ — Kirkus

JABberwocky have also released the eBook editions of Aliette’s debut trilogy, Obsidian & Blood: SERVANT OF THE UNDERWORLD, HARBINGER OF THE STORM and MASTER OF THE HOUSE OF DARTS.

Travel the multiverse with the Everness crew!

Posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2018

Great news for fans of Ian McDonald: the Everness trilogy is available again in eBook in the US! Published via the JABberwocky eBook Program, all three novels are available once again: PLANESRUNNER, BE MY ENEMY and EMPRESS OF THE SUN. Here’s the synopsis for the first novel…

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer: the Infundibulum, the map of all the parallel earths, the most valuable object in the multiverse. There are dark forces in the Plenitude of Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, and the might of ten planets at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking. To rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness. Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

The trilogy is published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books. JABberwocky have also published a few of Ian’s other novels in eBooks for the US market (follow the link above for more information). We’ll post some more information about these novels on the site over the next couple of weeks.

Here’s just a small selection drawn from the incredible reviews the series has received since the novels’ publication…

‘Also appropriating airships, larger‑than-life characters and breakneck action is Ian McDonald’s PLANESRUNNER…, the opening volume in the Everness series and his first foray into Young Adult fiction. This is vintage McDonald, with beautifully drawn settings, complex characters and deft plotting. When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped, Everett’s investigations lead him to discover that his father was working to open portals between multiple worlds. Everett finds a map linking the worlds, which various sinister organisations desire – and the thrilling chase is on.’ — Guardian

‘The book begins with its young and likeably geeky protagonist, Everett Singh (named for physicist Hugh Everett, who came up with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics back in the ‘50s) witnessing the kidnapping of his scientist father. But why would anyone want to drag an apparently unimportant academic off the street in London? Because, it turns out, Singh Sr has created the Infundibulum, a map of all known parallel Earths. Soon, Everett heads through a gateway and into a steampunk-tinged adventure. And yes, an airship is involved. But don’t hold that against McDonald, because this is a novel that’s knowing in the way it uses SF tropes without ever coming close to being condescending towards its intended audience. Science nerds of all ages may balk at the amount of exposition in the early chapters (arguably necessary, considering we’re talking quantum here), but most will be too busy getting lost in a cracking adventure story.’ — SFX on PLANESRUNNER

‘A pacy book filled with tropes McDonald takes from across the genre and makes his own, whether it is AI or nanotech, unpeopled Earths or post-apocalyptic worlds. The airship which is the series home has a real three dimensionality whilst the jump gun acts as pure plot device. In softer hands these books could become a “monster of the week” series but here there are consequences, none more so than when Everett is punched in the stomach by an authority figure. This basic, personal violence is a reminder that this is not a game and that even a genius can’t get through unscathed. I can’t wait to see what happens next.’ — Strange Horizons

‘McDonald proves the concept of his world of the Infundibulum has legs, and provides some intriguing new ideas amid an entertaining adventure… Lots of ideas thrown out and explored; good development of main characters… Malevolent Nanotech. More world hopping. A solidly entertaining second volume to the series… With all of these ideas, concepts and worldbuilding, McDonald, in terms of his core characters, provides us with meaty development and growth… I was more than satisfied with the book and anyone, young adult or otherwise, who has read the first book will find much to love here, and will likely be as eager as I for the next volume in the series.’ — SF Signal

‘[A]bsolutely triumphant sequel to Ian McDonald’s pulse-pounding young-adult science fiction novel PLANESRUNNER. PLANESRUNNER — a rollicking, multidimensional tale of a young boy who holds the key to infinite universes, seeking to rescue his physicist father from sinister powers — finished on a brutal cliffhanger, leaving its readers gasping and cursing for more. Now we have it. In BE MY ENEMY, there’s a lot more of what made PLANESRUNNER great — tremendous action scenes, cunning escapes, genius attacks on the ways that multidimensional travel might be weaponized, horrific glimpses of shadowy powers and sinister technologies. But BE MY ENEMY also has more of what makes McDonald’s adult fiction some of the best work I’ve ever read: a gifted ear for poesie that makes the English language sing, the unapologetic presumption of the reader’s ability to understand what’s going on without a lot of hand-holding, and a technological mysticism that never explicitly says when the literal stops and the fantasy starts… If you held off on reading PLANESRUNNER because you didn’t want to commit to a series without knowing if the author could keep up the quality, have no fear. McDonald has proven himself handily.’ — BoingBoing

‘The marvelous Everness series takes readers to a world with highly evolved dinosaurs in this third voyage through parallel universes… McDonald lets his imagination run rampant without abandoning credibility, tackling real scientific concepts such as confirmation bias, a feature lacking in far too much science fiction. Fans might wish for more focus on the original Everett, but eventually, the three storylines weave themselves together nicely, setting up another sequel with hints of forthcoming romance. Endlessly fascinating and fun.’ — Kirkus (Starred Review) on EMPRESS OF THE SUN

‘I’ve rarely had as much fun with a Young Adult SF series as I have with Ian McDonald’s Everness — now up to three books with the brand new, shiny addition of EMPRESS OF THE SUN, possibly the best book of the bunch so far… this latest installment, with its sentient space dinosaurs, will delight folks who occasionally yearn for a good old-fashioned pulp adventure… through all of it, the characters continue to shine… I confess that I initially wasn’t too crazy about the whole Doppelgänger plot, but in this novel, it turns into a wonderful part of the overall picture… It was simply a treat to get back into the crazy palari and strange fashions of the Everness books. It may sound bizarre, but this is the first time I’ve read a novel that actually made me feel like writing fan-fic about its characters, just because they’re so utterly fresh and surprising. The Everness series is technically Young Adult, but I believe any science fiction fan, young or old, would get sucked into these adventures.’ — Tor.com